Last night was a big night for Christopher. He rang the bell at swim lessons, which means that he has mastered the skills for the current level he is in and is ready to move on to the next level. He's moving into level 7 out of 10.

It's great whenever your kids master something, but I'm especially proud of him right now. Level 6 is hard. The first 5 levels are pretty fun, with plenty of playing, and the kids are standing on little tables in the water to make it shallow. Level 6 is in the deep end with no tables, and they are working hard. To graduate out of level 6 you need to show your ability to do front stroke and backstroke fluidly down 3/4 of the pool and then back, incorporating the stroke and the correct breathing. They look to make sure you can do it easily, keep straight, use the correct method of stroking, that your breathing is good and controlled, and that you can do it at a steady pace. It's hard. Hard enough to make Christopher want to quit swim lessons for awhile. When he wanted to give up I told him he could after he graduated from level 6 but I didn't want him to quit just because it was hard. If there are other valid reasons, then fine, but I wanted him to stick with this and complete it, despite the difficulty.

After about 10 months in level 6, he did it last night. And he's thrilled to be going into level 7, having decided that quitting swim lessons isn't necessary after all.

His picture makes me laugh (again, will have to post it later...something isn't right with the picture uploading implement). When someone rings the bell, everybody in the swimming arena stops what they're doing, and people turn and look at the student and clap wildly for them in support. Most kids go and "ring the bell" and immediately go back into the pool to join the next group up. Christopher just grinned like the Cheshire Cat during his bell ringing. He waited there by the bell, looking out over his fans while the clapped for him, and just kept waiting there for about a full minute after the clapping ended. He really took in his moment -- I think the difficulty of the task made him really appreciate the success. I love it!